The two available Burlington City Council seats also were won by incumbents.

Jim Butler, currently serving an appointed position after Steve Ross won a seat in the state House, received the majority of the 7,437 votes cast for City Council. Butler received 2,302 votes, or 30.95 percent, and fellow incumbent Celo Faucette received 2,192 votes, or 29.47 percent, of total votes.

Butler and Faucette were challenged by Julie Budd, who received 1,760 votes, or 23.67 percent, and Charles A. Carter, who received 1,146 votes, or 15.41 percent. Thirty-seven voters cast write-in ballots.

Faucette believes voters re-elected him because they’ve seen his commitment to Burlington.

“Personally, I thought people saw I was serious about the job,” Faucette said.

In his upcoming term, Faucette said, he’s committed to finishing the items on the project list he’s referenced several times. Those include seeing the Rockwood Avenue-O’Neal Street extension move forward to create a north-south thoroughfare through Burlington, fixing the old infrastructure underneath the city, bringing medical care to east Burlington and making a move on public transportation.

Butler also wants to get public transit established in the city.

“We have established a credible need for public transportation,” he said. “We need to go ahead and address that.”

Butler also wants to see the city involved more in the development of downtown, and not simply depend on the Burlington Downtown Corp. He added that economic development is important to the city since it’s the only way Burlington will be able to pay for continued budgetary needs without raising taxes.

Wall said this election also gave him better insight into Burlington’s downtown and its needs.

He said he’s also aware that several of the downtown and small business owners backed his opponent, Baltutis.

“I need to figure what it is they’re looking for.” Wall said, “We need to find out what’s troubling the small businesses.”

“I’ve learned several lessons from this campaign,” he said.

One of those things is that the residents of east Burlington don’t simply want development.

“There’s a cry in east Burlington in reference to cleaning up,” Wall said. “They’re very proud of what they have. They just want to make sure they’re not forgotten.”

Page 2 of 2 - During an election after-party at Mellow Mushroom for his volunteers and supporters, Baltutis said he was proud of what they had accomplished — speaking face-to-face with 7,000 voters, knocking on 4,283 doors and walking 132 miles during his canvassing.

Wall also congratulated Baltutis for his campaign, which he called “very strong.”

“My hat’s off to Ian as well,” Wall said, adding that the competition “made me a better person.” He said, “It made me re-examine some of my thinking.”

Baltutis told his volunteers, “We pushed Ronnie Wall to make statements and take actions on things he hasn’t done in the past six years,” and added that it was now their responsibility to hold the mayor to his promises.

“He said we’re going to get an up or down vote on transportation,” Baltutis reminded his supporters.

Baltutis was also proud of re-energizing the voter public, stating that this year’s voter turnout was stronger than it has been in the last three mayoral elections. He said his whole platform was about engaging voters, and Baltutis believes he succeeded, especially after hearing about 80-year-old voters asking their children to drive them to the polls for the first time in years.

“That really means the most to me,” Baltutis said.

He said also that he intends to remain active in local politics. Baltutis said when he knocked on doors, voters encouraged him to run for county commissioner.